"This is still Guadagnino’s masterpiece, as it encapsulates everything about him... His impeccable taste in music, his infuriating but delicious indulgences, his exquisite eye and hand with editing, and his deceptively simple stories that burst to vivid life with melodramatic and just plain melodic impulses." -Manny

Turkish cats, white supremacist terrorists, underground artists, climate change activists, controversial politicians, hackers, ballerinas and YouTube celebrities. These are just some of the subjects of the ONE-HUNDRED-AND-SEVENTY films that have been submitted for the Best Documentary Feature Academy Award. Yes, that 170 figure is a record and no, you probably haven't heard of a lot of them. Not even I had, and I write a weekly column on the subject.

We have tried to cover as many as possible, but trust me there's only so much we can do! Of course, on one hand, the number of titles listed here is daunting and massive. On the other hand, I must admit that a number this large actually somewhat puts my guilt at not covering enough to rest. It's simply too many! And it ought to be even longer! It's disappointing to see award season-worthy titles like In Transit, All This Panic and Antarctica: Ice and Sky not even submitted, but that's how this thing always goes.

I have included links to any TFE reviews, but also included bite-sized snippets to give you a snapshot and even a few one-sentence reviews for films I have seen and will not be doing a full write-up on. Nobody can say we don't attempt to cover as many as possible!

The Academy's doc branch will soon whittle this list down to 15 soon before we find out, as always, what the five nominees will be on Oscar Nomination Morning...

James’ film could easily come across as too minor (or at least minor-key), but I felt it worked a sort of simple quiet magic. - Glenn Dunks

Aida’s SecretsAl Di QuaAll the RageAll These Sleepless NightsAlphaGoThe American Media and the Second Assassination of President John F. KennedyAnd the Winner Isn’tAngels WithinArchitects of DenialArthur Miller: Writer

Brilliant in spurts and tender as a whole, it’s sure to be a must-watch for Miller fans - Manuel Betancourt

It’s also just a whole lot of wide-eyed fun, a scintillating journey through the galaxy that is as illuminating as it is exciting. - Glenn Dunks

The Final YearFinding Oscar500 YearsFood EvolutionFor AhkeemThe Force

Does a remarkable job of playing the line that many in the public have with 'the force' of desperately wanting the police to be and to do better, but being frustrated and angry at their seemingly endless disappointments. Handsomely shot, too. - Glenn Dunks

[The narrations] provide the framework of a film that its directors and cinematographer Gerardo Puglia use to hang a series of evocative and frequently haunting tableaus. - Glenn Dunks

Good FortuneA Gray StateHare Krishna! The Mantra, the Movement and the Swami Who Started It AllHarold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love StoryHearing Is BelievingHell on Earth: The Fall of Syria and the Rise of ISISHuman Flow

Ai Weiwei’s Human Flow is the result of a truly enormous undertaking... If that sounds like far too much, that’s because it is. - Daniel Walber

We watch these journalists talk about the responsibilities of obit reporting and how important it is that these people should be remembered for the mark they chose to make on the world, yet we learn not a single thing about them until the closing credits. - Glenn Dunks

So much remains unresolved that when coupled with an inability to delve into the interior world of the Hasidic community makes for an unfinished, unsatisfying film. - Glenn Dunks

The Paris Opera

Middling Wiseman-esque documentary that then swerves into the bizarre once it starts spending a whole lot of time on a woman who uses her wealth to teach students classical music. The woman, it turns out, is one of The Paris Opera's executive producers. For real! - Glenn Dunks

At times seemingly a glowing celebration of his achievements, at other times a comedy made up of his bumbling errors, The Reagan Show never finds a personality of its own amid the footage. - Glenn Dunks

ShadowmanShot! The Psycho Spiritual Mantra of RockSidemen: Long Road to GloryThe Skyjacker’s TaleSled DogsSoufraSpettacoloStepStopping Traffic: The Movement to End Sex-TraffickingStrong Island

...exhume is exactly what first-time filmmaker Yance Ford has done with this film about the death of his older, 19-year-old brother, William, at the hands of a white man who the courts sort little interest in seeking justice for. - Glenn Dunks

Surviving PeaceSwim TeamTake Every Wave: The Life of Laird HamiltonTake My Nose… Please!They Call Us Monsters32 Pills: My Sister’s SuicideThis Is Everything: Gigi GorgeousTickling GiantsTrophyTwenty TwoUnrestVince Giordano – There’s a Future in the PastVoyeurWait for Your LaughWasted! The Story of Food WasteWater & Power: A California HeistWhitney. “Can I Be Me”

it's the lapses in simple documentary common sense that make this film feel like one more indignity to her legacy. - Glenn Dunks

Reader Comments (8)

Thank you for your dedication to the subject. It adds pleasure to my documentary viewing. So many to choose from!

Re: Oscar I’m gonna be mean and hope cute cats clips called Kedi won’t get in despite popularity. Looking forward to see Faces Places which seems to be a delight. Honorary AND competitive Oscars for Varda, maybe?

Jija, I saw FACES PLACES at a film festival here and the film I compared it to to friends was... KEDI. Obviously the subject matters are wildly different on the surface, but they're both cute travelogue style docs that tell the story of a country through that of its citizens (humans and cats respectively). They both have adorable central figures with the ability to turn feral (Varda's scene with Godard in FACES PLACES was a hoot). So it amused me to hear you mention them both.

Kedi's box office could definitely help it, but it's a very atypical doc for the branch.

Also, thank you very much Jija. Always a pleasure to hear people enjoying it. I always hope readers go back and check them out when they finally get the chance to actually see the movies or use them as guides.